Table Of Contentdemocratic law in classical athens
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Th e Fordyce W. Mitchel Memorial Lecture Se-
ries, sponsored by the Department of History
at the University of Missouri-Columbia, began
in October 2000. Fordyce Mitchel was professor
of Greek history at the University of Missouri-
Columbia until his death in 1986. In addition to
his work on fourth-century Greek history and
epigraphy, including his much-cited Lykourgan
Athens: 338–322, Semple Lectures 2 (Cincinnati:
1970), Mitchel helped elevate the ancient history
program in the Department of History and build
the extensive library resources in that fi eld. Th e lecture series was made possi-
ble by a generous endowment from his widow, Mrs. Marguerite Mitchel. It pro-
vides for a biennial series of lectures on original aspects of Greek history and
society, given by a scholar of high international standing. Th e lectures are then
revised and are currently published by the University of Texas Press.
previous mitchel publications:
Carol G. Th omas, Finding People in Early Greece (University of Missouri Press, 2005)
Mogens Herman Hansen, Th e Shotgun Method: Th e Demography of the Ancient Greek
City-State Culture (University of Missouri Press, 2006)
Mark Golden, Greek Sport and Social Status (University of Texas Press, 2009)
Joseph Roisman, Alexander’s Veterans and the Early Wars of the Successors (University of
Texas Press, 2012)
Christopher Pelling, Herodotus and the Question Why (University of Texas Press, 2019)
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democr atic l aw
in cl assic a l athens
Michael Gagarin
university of texas press, austin
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Copyright © 2020 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2020
Th is book has been supported by an endowment dedicated to classics
and the ancient world and funded by the Areté Foundation; the Gladys
Krieble Delmas Foundation; the Dougherty Foundation; the James R.
Dougherty, Jr. Foundation; the Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation;
and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should
be sent to:
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University of Texas Press
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Austin, TX 78713-7819
utpress.utexas.edu/rp-form
Th e paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Names: Gagarin, Michael, author.
Title: Democratic law in classical Athens / Michael Gagarin.
Description: Austin : University of Texas Press, 2020. | Series:
Fordyce W. Mitchel Memorial Lecture Series | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: lccn 2019030029 | isbn 978-1-4773-2037-2 (cloth) |
isbn 978-1-4773-2039-6 (nonlibrary ebook) | isbn 978-1-4773-2038-9
(library ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Public law (Greek law) | Justice, Administration of
(Greek law) | Democracy—Greece—Athens—History—To 1500. |
Athens (Greece)—Politics and government.
Classifi cation: lcc kl4358 .g34 2020 | ddc 340.5/385—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030029
doi:10.7560/320372
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For Daniel and Alexandra
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contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
chapter 1 Democracy 10
chapter 2 Performance 34
chapter 3 Negotiation 51
chapter 4 Rhetoric 71
chapter 5 Rules and Relevance 93
chapter 6 Justice 115
chapter 7 Public Interest 132
chapter 8 Th e Rule of Law 154
chapter 9 Th e Success of Democratic Law 168
Bibliography 176
Index of Ancient Texts 187
General Index 191
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preface
Th is book draws together a number of ideas about Athenian law that I have
been thinking and writing about during the last two decades. Th ese ideas
have focused on aspects of Athenian law (and in some cases of Greek law
more generally) that are generally considered marginal to the law. Th ese in-
cluded most importantly the close connection between Athenian law and
democracy, as well as the role of “challenges” in litigation (which I analyze
in the broader categories of proposals and negotiation), law as performance,
the place of rhetoric in law, the connection between law and justice, and the
role in litigation of factors such as public interest that are today considered
irrelevant or only marginally relevant. Th ese features have all been noted by
others and have sometimes given rise to strong criticism of the Athenian le-
gal system (see the introduction and chapter 1). Th is book is an attempt to
understand how these marginal features aff ected Athenian law in practice.¹
I argue that, when properly understood, these features can be seen to be
fully consistent with the rule of law, with justice, and with the democratic
insistence on public benefi t. I argue that although Athenian law was in-
deed democratic, in the sense that it was truly in the hands of the people,
as the Athenians wished it to be, it nonetheless succeeded to a large degree
in observing the rule of law. Athenian law is not immune from criticism,
for example, that the amount of litigation was excessive, but in general most
Athenians seem to have had a favorable opinion of their legal system, so
that it underwent relatively little structural change between ca. 460 and 323.
Some of the issues I deal with in the following pages have been contro-
versial. My experience is that in even the most heated debates, both sides
usually have something valuable to contribute. I have tried to draw on the
. I have been much infl uenced by law and literature approaches to modern law and
follow Goodrich (1998:115) in believing that “the study of Law and Literature draws at-
tention to certain marginal features of law and makes that marginality central to a crit-
ical understanding of law.”
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